Friends and Other Interesting People

Unfortunately, many of my closest friends don't yet have web pages.I'm
trying to bring them gently into the twentieth century before we cross
the threshold of the twenty-first, but as many people in the computer
world know, this is far from an easy task. In the meantime, here are the
links to a few people who have played a significant role in my life and
who have actually made web pages for themselves.

The Gang of Four

Back in my RPI days, a small group of
friends spent a lot of time working together on collective stories like
Bar-Trek
and
Ikibomot High School,
and also frequently shared transportation and crash space at
science fiction conventions.
A subset of Apricot Systematic, we
referred to ourselves as The Gang of Four. Besides myself,
the members were:

Ed "Zed" Lopez, bibliophile,
aerobicist and vegetarian, and my favorite philosphical debating partner.
This man actually survived a year and a half in Los Angeles and even
managed to earn a master's degree in the process.

John "Pomru" Yung, artist
extraordinaire, anime and comic book expert, and always willing to volunteer
as a "Pomru Navigation Unit" (PNU) on road trips.

Other Friends

Mitch Gold, probably the
first friend I made at RPI. He cheered
me up when I was having a really bad day during my first month at school,
and that's the sort of thing I never forget. He has always been a good guy
to know. Currently in Florida, but still occasionally makes it up north.

George Walters, bozo
from RPI and now a fellow New Jersey
resident, just your basic all-American, somewhat insane guy.

Mark Taranto, one of the instigators
of the "Inner Clique" on rec.arts.books
back in 1992 and '93, when we both actually had time to participate in Usenet.
Mark lived in New York City when I was in Troy, and shortly after I moved down
to the New York area, he moved away, the traitor. Mark recently obtained
an MBA from Duke University, and was last
seen headed for UC Berkeley, hot on
the trail of a Ph.D.

Jeff Jankowski, the
Capital District's premier bicyclist, party host, and blues connosieur,
proprietor of the famous (or notorious) 11th Street Hotel. Jeff is a fellow
beer lover and helped me to compose the
Beer Bill of Rights.

Atul Jagga, a good friend of mine from Troy, doesn't have
a personal web site, but he does have one for Squonk, the ISP that he founded in 1995.

Organizations

Computers and the Internet have been a very useful social tool for me, and
I've made many new friends and acquaintances through the computer-related
organizations of which I've been a member. The web sites of these groups will
contain links to other interesting people whose paths I've crossed in the past
few years, in addition to much useful information in their own right.

Apricot Systematic, an informal but
very active collection of individuals dedicated to exploring the potential of
computers for communication, and also having a good time going to
science fiction conventions,
watching
anime,
and drinking
Coca-Cola.

If you're not on this list and think that you should be, feel free to
e-mail me and threaten dire vengeance
if you're not added.